“Abolitionism and the Arts in the Long Eighteenth Century” (May 6, 2023)

Along with members of the Columbia University Seminar in Eighteenth-Century European Culture, I organized a one-day interdisciplinary symposium called “Abolitionism and the Arts in the Long Eighteenth Century.” The event was held on May 6, 2023 at two locations on the Columbia University campus: the Heyman Center for the Humanities and the Maison Française. The daytime symposium featured opening remarks by Atesede Makonnen; a plenary dialogue between Adrienne Childs and Patricia Matthew; and two interdisciplinary panels of papers presented by Callum Blackmore, Shruti Jain, Scott Sanders, Frank Felsenstein, Srividhya Swaminathan, and Kaushik Tekur. The evening concert and panel featured pre-concert remarks by myself; a performance of rarely-heard abolitionist songs by Awet Andemicael and Magdalena Stern-Baczewska; and a panel discussion with the performers and audience members led by Berta Joncus. For more information about this event, please see the conference website. A video of the concert will be uploaded to the website soon.